


Embellishment

by floatingaway4



Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:35:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28110258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingaway4/pseuds/floatingaway4
Summary: Henry explores one of Leo's hobbies....Part of the RWRB Winterfest 2020Prompt 17: candles (I know, it's the 16th, but I'm having a snow day so I'm posting early!)
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Comments: 30
Kudos: 94
Collections: RWRB Winterfest 2020





	Embellishment

**Author's Note:**

> One of my favorite little things in the book is the quick mention that Leo does tablescapes. I think I'd just learned about them right before I read the book, so it really cracked me up. There's are links at the end if you don't have a good image for what a tablescaping competition is.

“I still don’t really understand, dear.” 

They’re strolling into the suburban New Jersey convention hall holding hands, plain clothes security behind and in front of them. Leo’s team is already here so they pass a few more obvious Secret Service agents. It’s not the complete lockdown it would be if Alex’s mom were here, which is nice. She doesn't come to these, lets it be Leo’s thing and doesn’t draw attention away from him. Plus, she secretly thinks it's ridiculous, but she loves him, so she supports his interests...quirky as they are. 

“It’s like... fancy table settings,” Alex tries to explain. 

“What? Like at the palace?”

Alex snorts. “No, it’s not all lead crystal and antique china and…” he waves his hand in the air, “nineteen forks.”

“Twenty-two forks, peasant,” Henry scoffs, with a haughty accent and a shit-eating grin. The combination might kill Alex one of these days when his heart explodes.

“Ugh, I hate you.” Alex grumbles, but his smile and squeeze of Henry’s hand says otherwise. “Anyway, it’s about creating themes with your design. They put together these elaborate scenes for whatever their theme is. Like, the last competition I came to had a creepy funeral theme and this lady had a coffin leaning up against the table.” 

“Festive,” Henry says drily. 

Alex grins at him. “They get really serious and cutthroat at these competitions.” He gestures at some middle-aged women huddled together, glaring over at a table across the aisle. “They may look all sweet and innocent, but don’t be fooled, babe.” 

They find Leo and fawn over his table design, letting him tell them about each detail while three teams of security hover and generally get in each other’s way. Some other “scapers” come over to talk to Leo, so Alex and Henry excuse themselves to look around. 

Soon Henry is tugging at Alex’s shirt sleeve, pulling him all around Exhibit Room C. “Look at the Christmas one, Alex!” 

“Ooh! Look at the way they tied ribbons on the chairs!” 

“Did you see how they painted all the little pumpkins white and used them instead of place cards? I’m going to do this the next time we have people over for dinner!”

Alex has been to these shows before, since Leo got into it right before they moved to DC. And he’s trying to focus on what Henry’s pointing at, he really is... but it’s so much more fun to watch _Henry_ , to see how excited he is. How fucking pretty he is when his cheeks flush and …

“Alex, are you listening to me at all?” 

Alex gives him his best grin and looks him straight in the eye. “Yes, sweetheart, I see it. It’s beautiful.” He’s not lying. He’s just not referring to the floral centerpiece Henry’s talking about. 

Alex stops to talk to some fans and when he looks around, Henry is gone. How has no one recognized that bastard? He’s just wearing a hat and an NYU sweatshirt, it’s not like he’s the master of fucking disguise. 

Alex finally spots him talking to Leo again, their heads bowed over a binder of pictures that Alex knows includes Leo’s portfolio of previous designs. With a heavy sigh, he drops his head and starts over to Leo’s table. 

Leo is pointing to a chart and explaining something to Henry. “...and there are criteria for judging. Each area counts for a certain number of points, so you can put the most effort into areas that earn you the most points, see?” 

Henry’s face is alight with joy. When he notices Alex has joined them, he grins and Alex can’t even be upset. Leo promises to send Henry some links and they say their goodbyes. 

“Oh god, our house is going to become one giant craft project, isn’t it?” Alex asks as they’re walking away. 

Henry wraps an arm around Alex’s waist as they head toward the door. “Darling, you live with a very, very, gay man. We both knew that was going to happen anyway.” Henry grins, but Alex can tell he’s not really joking. “I’ve been suppressing my creative side for years. I’m tired of conforming to gender norms that were decided centuries ago. Hardly ‘princely’ to be interested in activities like writing or baking or decorating that are considered stereotypically feminine, at least in my family. Instead, I played sports because it was encouraged at home and at school.” He frowns. “They thought it would make me more of a man.”

“More of a straight man?” 

“I’m sure that was their unspoken hope, yes.” 

“Funny, because polo is very, very gay.” 

Henry nods. “Well, yes, it was the way we did it. Which I assure you was hardly regulation.” 

Alex laughs and wraps his arm tighter around Henry’s waist. 

It begins, not long after they’re back in Brooklyn. Henry is on Pinterest all weekend. He asks for Alex’s opinion about materials and color combinations and draws rough sketches of his designs. (Alex could actually watch Henry draw all day, if he could get away with it. There’s something about the focused look on his face and the sureness of his strong hands...and Alex knows he’s got it bad.) 

Henry joins an online group where he can share ideas and pictures and ask questions about where to get certain fabrics and decorative elements. Alex has to laugh, knowing the other people discussing the pros and cons of Belgian linen would lose their shit if they knew who HWscaper3 really was. 

Alex just finds it fucking charming when Henry is buried in one of his projects. He works all day at the shelter, sometimes just shuffling paperwork but more often working directly with the kids. There are days when working at the shelter drains everything out of him, when he doesn’t feel like he’s doing enough for anyone, when the laws and the families and society all seem to be conspiring to make sure these kids fail, and Henry comes home and just collapses in a moody heap on their sofa. But the other days, more frequent now, Alex comes home and there’s glitter in Henry’s hair and paint smeared on his cheek and he looks tired but...content. And when Alex laughs and says, “You’re a mess, baby,” what he means is that he’s just so in love. 

This new obsession also leads them to have more little dinner parties, which Alex is secretly thrilled about. He’s always had a fear in the back of his mind that Henry will never make friends in New York and Alex won’t be enough for him and Henry will eventually get lonely and leave. But it turns out that between family and friends and colleagues and their advocacy work, they have enough excuses to have people over pretty regularly. 

Henry comes up with over-the-top decorations for holidays and special occasions all through the next year. Halloween is all black and silver, with spiders and glow-in-the-dark webs. His more generic autumn table is stylish and classy, all brown and cream and burnt orange, with fresh greenery and a few real leaves scattered here and there. They invite Leo and Ellen up for that one, because Henry wants to share what he’s learned and get some pointers. After dinner and dessert, which Henry of course baked himself using a Mary Berry recipe, Alex and Ellen sit on the sofa drinking while their partners chatter on at the table. Ellen explains to Alex that now they’re both “tablescape widows,” which confuses him at first but then makes him laugh hard enough that he almost chokes on his beer. 

That year Henry has to skip doing a table for Christmas, because they go to England to see his family. Alex kisses Henry on the side of his head when he notices him scrolling Pinterest on the flight over. He tells him there’s always next year and now he has more time to plan. 

At the end of January, Alex sees the red velvet draped over their chairs and the little portrait of Alexander Hamilton in the center of the table, and he laughs his ass off. “You did a Red Room table?” Henry kisses him hard and says, “Happy Anniversary.” 

On Valentines Day, it’s just the two of them again, with the obvious hearts and cupids and shades of red and pink, but also two swans swimming on a lake made of a mirror. And Henry’s just so damn proud of it all and having so much fun that Alex knows how his mom feels about Leo. 

On Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s birthday, each chair at their dining room table is covered with a black robe and a lace collar. Little gavels are placed on each napkin. Much to June’s delight, Henry snatches Alex’s away when he won’t stop banging it on the table and demanding order. 

On Star Wars day, Henry invites two of his coworker friends from the shelter. They eat dinner with chopsticks that look like lightsabers and actually light up. There’s a Yoda doll situated in the center, dry ice simulating the mist on Dagobah. Henry puts action figures at each plate to hold the place cards. Alex, of course, finds Han Solo near his plate, and Henry has Leia. After their guests leave, a drunk Alex plops down on the sofa next to Henry and uses the action figures to stage a pornographic reenactment of that thing they tried last night. Henry bites his lip while Alex moans and grunts and smashes the molded plastic figures together. Finally, Henry presses him down on the couch and kisses him senseless. For weeks afterward, Alex leaves Han and Leia posed in obscene positions around the house. 

Henry throws in a couple of British holidays, and they invite Shaan and Zahra for one of those and Bea and Pez to another. Alex is forced to concede that not all British food is plain and boring. 

On the anniversary of Stonewall, they invite a few of the people they met when they were Grand Marshals of the NYC Pride Parade the year before. Their table is covered with rainbows and photos of gay rights icons. Henry uses a banner with the words “Love is love is love” as the table runner. He makes a rainbow-colored layer cake which is both delicious and technically impressive. 

He goes especially nutty on the Fourth of July, decorating the table with British and American flags, and rockets he made out of cardboard, and decorative sprays made to look like fireworks. He promises Alex nothing will actually explode, but does put lit sparklers in the cupcakes. 

Henry’s Jane Austen-inspired table earns him lots of positive comments from his online group. Alex can tell he’s especially proud of that one. He uses craft paper to make the table runner and writes quotes from her books at each personalized place setting. Alex eats an entire (fabulous) dinner while staring at the words, “You pierce my soul” in Henry’s loopy cursive. 

By the time Thanksgiving rolls around again, Alex starts wondering what Henry will do to their table for Christmas this year. He’s had months to plan and has seemed alternately preoccupied and excited for weeks. 

Henry orders him not to come home until just before 7 on Christmas Eve, so he can decorate without being spied on. Alex is prepared to compliment Henry on whatever he’s done. And he’ll mean it, he truly will, he just knows he has to be precise in his compliments, because he loves watching the way Henry lights up when Alex picks out specific details. And Henry loves to explain where he got the idea or the little doodad that Alex noticed. 

So he’s a little confused when he comes home and finds all the lights off downstairs. There’s faint light coming from the dining room, so he makes his way in there. Alex is surprised to find a mostly bare table with...nothing. Nothing but two lit candles in simple wooden candleholders. And nothing else. He knows Henry didn’t forget, he’d texted Alex in the afternoon and reminded him not to come home early. 

“H?” 

Hearing no response, Alex walks closer to the table. There’s really nothing on it, no plates or glasses, no ribbons or painted gourds or baskets or origami napkins. No fake wrapped presents or reindeer or fake snow ...just the two candles. 

Alex’s eyes adjust to the dim light. 

Just two candles. And a ring box. Black velvet, almost swallowed by the shadows between the candlesticks. 

Henry is suddenly behind him, but Alex is still staring at the table. And he kind of can’t remember how to breathe. 

Henry’s arms wrap around his shoulders and Alex instinctively leans back into the familiar comfort. His low voice drifts into Alex’s ear, burns into his brain. “Much like you, some things are so lovely and perfect they don’t need...embellishment.”

He steps around Alex and picks up the box. He gets down on one knee before he opens it, and it would make Alex cry, if he wasn’t already. 

Henry asks the question, in a voice that’s shaky because he’s crying too. Alex feels like he’s on sensory overload, looking at Henry and listening to his words and imagining spending every day of the rest of his life with him. He swipes at the tears that are streaming down his face. 

Alex tugs at Henry’s hand, making him stand up so Alex can look _up_ at him, the way he always does, the way he hated at first and now can’t imagine living without. It’s where Henry belongs. Alex tilts his chin up and looks into Henry’s blue, blue eyes, bluer and darker somehow in the candlelight. 

He cups Henry’s cheek and feels the tears roll onto his thumb and wonders how he got so fucking lucky. “Yeah,” Alex says softly, as though there would ever be any other answer. Even in a whisper, his voice is rough and thick with tears. “Yes.” 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Quick 5 minute video of a tablescaping competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzMNtKBwARM
> 
> And a story about how stringent the rules are, with pictures!!: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/tablescaping


End file.
